In Apocalyptic Swing, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, moves from life to life in poems that are at once personal and draw from a communal sense of history and popular culture. These poems are often set in the past but speak to the ever-present concerns of sexuality, faith, and violence. Boxing, a recurring theme in the book, becomes a fascinating intersection of the physical and the metaphysical, the literal fight and internal strivings. Throughout the book, conflict is lyrically torqued to show the depth of feeling and thought it arouses. Yet, as the title implies, there is also the swing of music and celebration. In the book, people face and dance through individual apocalypses daily. A. Van Jordan writes, "Apocalyptic Swing plays a fugue of athleticism and sexuality while chronicling some of the most striking—and, in some cases, surprisingly forgotten—moments in our recent, incendiary history...Infused with the rhythms of the punching bag and the body, Apocalyptic Swing reads like necessary gospel."

This book review originally appeared in American Poets.